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Scientists testifying before a Senate committee painted a bleak picture of climate change's effect on oceans. Increasing acidity in oceans has already disrupted the reproductive cycle of oysters, and shrimp have migrated away from the Gulf of Mexico as a result of lower oxygen levels. Oceans absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which then turns into carbonic acid in the water.

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Climate change has caused ocean acidity to increase by 26% over the past 250 years as the planet's water absorbs increasing levels of atmospheric carbon, scientists say. That's bad news for coral-reef ecosystems -- and for national economies, which stand to lose $1 trillion by 2100 in lost shoreline protection and diminished revenues in the food and tourism industries.

A coral reef in the western Pacific Ocean near Palau is thriving under increasing acidic conditions, baffling scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Coral reefs typically create calcium carbonate from seawater, but carbonate levels fall as water becomes more acidic, threatening the corals' existence. However the reef near Palau is thriving despite the acidity, according to the study in Geophysical Research Letters, and researchers have yet to figure out why.

The effects of rising global temperatures will extend into the next 1,000 years even if humans cease to emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, according to a climate simulation model done by researchers at the University of Victoria and the University of Calgary in Canada. The impact of climate change will continue into the next millennium since effects of carbon dioxide levels from the past century, due partly to inertia in the world's oceans. For example, warming is only now being seen in some parts of the Southern Atlantic Ocean from decades-old carbon dioxide emissions. "The simulation showed that warming will continue, rather than stop or reverse, on the 1,000-year time scale," said John Marshall, a geography professor at the University of Calgary.

Countries must take more aggressive steps to reduce carbon emissions and increase spending on clean-energy programs in order to slow climate change, according to a group that advises nations on energy issues. A recent report by the International Energy Agency found that countries must invest $10 trillion in carbon-abatement technology during the next two decades to limit increases in Earth's temperature.

Husqvarna unveiled a concept riding mower called the Panthera Leo that runs on electricity. The futuristic mower can run for two hours on its lithium phosphate battery before needing a recharge. The mower uses three independent cutting decks for a closer cut on bumpy ground, similar to the design of a three-head rotary razor.